AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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BASIC CHRONOLOGY RELATING TO LECTURES 1-5
DR DAVID CRANKSHAW, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON
*IMPORTANT NOTICE*
This Chronology is offered as a helpful clarification.
It is not expected that you will need know or learn all of these dates and facts for the exam.
By 1520
• Individuals broadly sympathetic to religious reform met in the White Horse tavern in Cambridge
1520
• Lutheran books were sold in Oxford
1521
• The Government attempted to stem the flood of Lutheran works reaching England
• Henry VIII’s Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (i.e. a confutation of Lutheran doctrine) was published
• Henry VIII was granted the title Fidei Defensor (i.e. ‘Defender of the Faith’) by the pope
1526
• William Tyndale published the first printed English translation of the New Testament at Worms in
Germany. Copies were immediately smuggled into England
1527
• Proceedings to annul the king’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon began
• Rome was sacked by rampaging imperial troops and the pope was taken prisoner
1529
• Cardinal Wolsey fell from power and was succeeded as Lord Chancellor by Sir Thomas More
• The first session of the ‘Reformation Parliament’ began; some anti-clerical legislation was passed
1530
• Certain clergy were accused of praemunire (i.e. of recognizing a foreign jurisdiction)
• Cardinal Wolsey died in disgrace
1531
• Praemunire charges were extended to the whole English clergy
• An Act for the Pardon of the Clergy was passed
• The clergy were fined and forced to admit a limited measure of Royal Supremacy in the English
Church
• Thomas Cromwell joined the king’s council
1532
• The Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates (i.e. certain papal taxes) was passed, but was to remain
inoperative for a year
• Thomas Cromwell sponsored the revival (from 1529) of the ‘Commons’ Supplication Against the
Ordinaries’, which complained of ecclesiastical oppression
• Convocation (the English Church’s law-making body) responded with the ‘Answer of the Ordinaries’
• The king gave his support to a determined assault on the Church
• Convocation was forbidden to pass any further ecclesiastical laws
• The Submission of the Clergy took place, in which the clergy acknowledged the king’s Supreme
Headship in the English Church in spiritual matters
• Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor
• William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, died
1533
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1534
• The Act in Absolute Restraint of Annates was passed, making earlier statutory instruments
Thomas Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury
The king’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon was annulled and he married Anne Boleyn
The Act in Restraint of Appeals was passed (i.e. appeals to Rome were prohibited)
The king activated the earlier Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates (see 1532)
The Princess Elizabeth (i.e. the future Queen Elizabeth I) was born
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AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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permanent
The Dispensations Act was passed; dispensations from canon law (i.e. the system of law governing
the Church) would now be obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury instead of from Rome
The Act for the Submission of the Clergy was passed
The Act of Succession was passed, stating that the Crown was to descend to the issue of the king’s
marriage to Anne Boleyn; it became treason to dispute that succession and subjects were to swear an
oath admitting its validity
The Act of Supremacy was passed, declaring the king to be Supreme Head of the Church of England
The Treason Act was passed, extending treason to verbal attacks on the king
The Act concerning First Fruits and Tenths was passed; these papal taxes were transferred to the
Crown
1535
• Thomas Cromwell was appointed vicegerent and vicar-general in spirituals
• Several Carthusian monks, Bishop John Fisher of Rochester and Sir Thomas More were executed
• Some leading reformers were promoted to bishoprics (e.g. Hugh Latimer to Worcester)
1536
• The Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries was passed
• The ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ (a series of semi-autonomous peasant uprisings) disturbed Lincolnshire
and much of northern England; this was the greatest of all sixteenth-century rebellions against royal
policy
• The king’s marriage to Anne Boleyn was dissolved and she was executed; he married Jane Seymour
• The ‘Ten Articles’ were passed by Convocation and promulgated
• Thomas Cromwell issued the first Royal Injunctions
1537
• An English translation of the Bible was published by John Rogers under the pseudonym Thomas
Matthew. Under Cromwell’s influence, the king agreed to permit the sale of the ‘Matthew Bible’
throughout England
• Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, was born
1538
• Thomas Cromwell issued the second Royal Injunctions
1539
• The Act for the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries was passed
• The Act of Six Articles was passed. Some reformers resigned their sees; others emigrated
• The Great Bible, Miles Coverdale’s revision of earlier English translations, was published
1540
• Thomas Cromwell, by now Earl of Essex, fell from favour and was executed
1541
• Ancient customs associated with holy days were abolished by royal proclamation
1543
• The Act for the Advancement of True Religion (aiming to curtail popular Bible reading) was passed
1544
• An English Litany was introduced into churches. It contained almost no prayers to saints
1545
• The Chantries Act (relating to the dissolution of the chantries) was passed, but was not implemented
1547
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1549
• The First Act of Uniformity introduced the first English Book of Common Prayer (i.e. a new liturgy)
• The introduction of the Book of Common Prayer partly provoked risings in the West Country
• The Duke of Somerset fell from power and was succeeded (though not as Lord Protector) by John
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who was soon after (in 1550) created Duke of Northumberland
Henry VIII died and was succeeded by Edward VI, a minor
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (later 1st Duke of Somerset), became Lord Protector of England
Some notable foreign reformers (e.g. Peter Martyr Vermigli and Martin Bucer) arrived in England
Thomas Cranmer issued a set of Injunctions, based on those of 1538
The first Book of Homilies (i.e. prescribed sermons) was published
Parliament approved a programme of radical religious legislation (e.g. communion in both kinds was
to be extended to the laity; the Chantries were dissolved; the Act of Six Articles was repealed; and
various heresy Acts were repealed)
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AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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1550
• Some evangelical bishops ordered the removal of altars and rood screens from parish churches
• An Act was passed enjoining the destruction of all images
1552
• The Second Act of Uniformity introduced the second English Book of Common Prayer
1553
• The Forty-Two Articles defining the Protestant faith of the Church of England were prepared
• Edward VI died and was succeeded (briefly) by Lady Jane Grey, but she was supplanted in a coup
d’état by Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, who became Mary I
• The Duke of Northumberland was executed; Archbishop Cranmer was committed to the Tower
• Mary’s first Parliament began repealing the Edwardian religious legislation, including the statute
permitting clerical marriage. The Mass was restored
1554
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1555
• An Act of Parliament restored the papal supremacy and the heresy laws were revived
• John Rogers, the first Marian Protestant martyr, was burned
• The Genevan community of English Protestant exiles was founded by forty-eight of the followers of
John Knox and William Whittingham, after those two leaders had left Frankfurt
• Reginald Pole was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
1556
• Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned
1558
• Mary I died and was succeeded by Elizabeth I; Reginald Pole died the same night
1559
• The Act of Supremacy was passed, declaring the queen to be ‘Supreme Governor’ of the Church of
England
• The Act of Uniformity introduced the 1559 Book of Common Prayer
• All Acts repealed by the Marian regime were revived
• Royal Injunctions were issued for implementation through a visitation of the whole Church of
England
• Catholic bishops were deprived from their sees; Matthew Parker became Archbishop of Canterbury
• Protestant exiles began to return from the Continent
1560
• The Geneva Bible (with strongly Calvinist notes) was published in an English translation
1561
• John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion appeared in an English translation
1563
• The first English edition of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (i.e. the ‘Book of Martyrs’) appeared
• The Thirty-Nine Articles (defining the doctrine of the Church of England) were approved in the
Convocation of the Province of Canterbury
1565-66
• The Vestiarian Controversy took place, following Elizabeth’s order for uniformity over the surplice
1566
• Prince James (i.e. the future King James VI of Scotland and James I of England) was born
1567
• Mary, Queen of Scots, abdicated and was succeeded by James VI
• A separatist congregation was discovered in London
1568
• Mary, Queen of Scots, escaped from captivity, repudiated her abdication, was defeated by the Earl of
Moray (the then Regent) and fled into England, where she was taken into custody, lasting until 1587
• The Bishops’ Bible was issued
• William Allen founded a college at Douai in Flanders to train English Catholic priests
Wyatt’s Rebellion (against the proposed Spanish match and in favour of Protestantism) took place
Some Protestants began leaving England for continental exile
Lady Jane Grey was executed
Queen Mary married the future Philip II of Spain
Reginald Pole, the papal legate, granted absolution to the whole realm
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AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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1569
• The ‘Rebellion of the Northern Earls’ took place in favour of Catholicism and Mary, Queen of Scots
1570
• The pope excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her to be deposed
• Thomas Cartwright, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge,
extolled presbyterianism in his lectures
1571
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1572
• The Admonition to the Parliament, which condemned ‘abuses’ remaining in the Church of England
and advocated presbyterianism, was published anonymously by John Field and Thomas Wilcox
1574
• Catholic seminary priests secretly arrived in England for the first time
1575
• Matthew Parker died and was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by Edmund Grindal
1576
• Archbishop Grindal, having been ordered by the queen to suppress the ‘prophesyings’ (local training
exercises in preaching), wrote his famous letter of refusal
1577
• Archbishop Grindal was suspended from office
• Cuthbert Mayne was executed, the first Catholic seminary priest to be martyred
1580
• Jesuits secretly arrived in England for the first time
1581
• Alarm at the prospect of a Jesuit ‘invasion’ gave rise to fiercely anti-Catholic Acts of Parliament
1583
• Edmund Grindal died and was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by John Whitgift
• Whitgift issued his famous twelve articles, to three of which clerical subscription was required,
thereby provoking the ‘Subscription Crisis’ amongst nonconformist ministers
• The Catholic Throckmorton Plot was discovered
1584
• Whitgift accepted qualified subscription to the crucial three articles of 1583
1586
• The Catholic Babington Plot, designed to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the
English throne, was discovered
1587
• Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed
1588
• The Spanish Armada, part of a plan to invade England, was defeated by an English fleet
1591
• Leading puritans, including Thomas Cartwright, were brought before the Court of Star Chamber
1593
• Severe Acts against Catholic recusants and Protestant sectaries were passed in Parliament,
symbolizing the success of Whitgift’s tough stance in defending the Church of England against its
perceived enemies
• The first four books of Richard Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity were published
1595
• William Barrett caused controversy in Cambridge by attacking the Calvinist doctrine of
predestination
• The Lambeth Articles, articulating the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, were approved by
Whitgift
1603
• Queen Elizabeth I died and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland, as James I of England
1604
• John Whitgift died and was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by Richard Bancroft
The Ridolfi Plot, aimed at Elizabeth’s deposition with Spanish aid, was exposed
An Act made it high treason to bring papal bulls into England
The Treasons Act made it high treason to deny the Royal Supremacy and to call the queen a heretic
Statutory confirmation was given to the Thirty-Nine Articles
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AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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1605
• The Gunpowder Plot was discovered
1611
• Richard Bancroft died and was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by George Abbot
1618-19
• The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands affirmed Calvinist doctrines and condemned Arminianism
1625
• James VI and I died and was succeeded by Charles I
1629
• The House of Commons passed resolutions against Laudianism before being dissolved, which was
the beginning of the Eleven Years of Personal Rule
1633
• George Abbot died and was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by William Laud
1637
• An attempt was made to impose a Laudian Book of Common Prayer on the Scots
1638
• A majority of the Scottish political nation subscribed to the National Covenant to withstand religious
innovations
1639
• Charles I launched the Bishops’ War in an effort to impose the Book of Common Prayer on the Scots
1640
• Charles I failed to get support from a Short Parliament (April-May) to raise troops against the Scots;
he attacked Scotland anyway; the Scots defeated him at Newburn and occupied north-eastern
England; the King was constrained to call the Long Parliament, which began in November
• The ‘Root and Branch’ petition against episcopacy was submitted to the House of Commons
• Archbishop Laud was impeached
1641
• Twelve bishops were impeached
• Altar rails and images were destroyed in many churches
• Catholics in Ulster rebelled against Protestant colonists
1642
• The Bishops’ Exclusion and Clergy Disqualification Act was passed
• Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham
• Episcopacy was suspended
1643
• The Westminster Assembly of Divines began
• English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters formed an alliance around the Solemn League
and Covenant: the Scots promised to send 20,000 troops into England and the English promised a
federal union of the English and Scottish states and a single system of church government and
practice
• The Westminster Assembly of Divines took the Covenant
1644
• The Battle of Marston Moor was won by the Parliamentarians and the Scots
1645
• The Directory of Public Worship, which had been approved by the Westminster Assembly of
Divines, was introduced by parliamentary ordinance
• Archbishop Laud was executed
• The Book of Common Prayer was banned
• The first parliamentary ordinance for presbyterian Church government was issued
1646
• Another parliamentary ordinance for presbyterian Church government was issued
• Charles I surrendered to the Scots and the First Civil War came to an end
• The House of Commons ordered the enforcement of the ordinance for presbyterian Church
government
• Episcopacy was abolished
1648
• Charles I signed the Engagement with dissident Scottish nobles and launched the Second Civil War,
which his supporters lost
• Another parliamentary ordinance for presbyterian Church government was issued
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AKC 5 General – Spring Term 2008 – Power & Protest
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• The final parliamentary ordinance for presbyterian Church government was issued
• The New Model Army (having a significant Independent element) purged the presbyterian Long
Parliament, leaving a Rump of MPs sympathetic to its cause
1649
• Charles I was tried and executed
• The House of Lords and the monarchy were abolished; England became a free Commonwealth
1650
• An Act repealed the penal laws compelling attendance at parish churches on Sundays
1651
• Charles II, in Scotland, was crowned King of Britain and Ireland
• The Scots invaded and were defeated at the Battle of Worcester; Charles II fled to the Continent
• The Fifth Monarchist and Quaker movements began
1653
• Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament and established Barebone’s Parliament, but that
soon surrendered power back to Cromwell, who was installed as Lord Protector
• The Instrument of Government established religious toleration for most Protestants
1654
• A system involving a central committee of Triers (to choose clergy) and local committees of Ejectors
(for removing unsuitable clergy) was introduced with the aim of improving clerical standards
1657
• Oliver Cromwell refused the Crown
1658
• Oliver Cromwell died; Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector
1659
• The republic collapsed; the Rump Parliament was restored; political and military disintegration
occurred, leading to anarchy
1660
• The Long Parliament dissolved itself
• Charles II issued his Declaration from Breda, which promised to leave all disputed issues to be
settled by Parliament
• The Convention Parliament began; the government of the country was to be in king, lords and
commons
• Charles II entered London and was proclaimed king
1661
• The Savoy Conference between ‘Anglicans’ and presbyterians failed to produce compromise over
forms of worship
• A new Parliament sought a more partisan Cavalier and ‘Anglican’ settlement
1662
• Charles II’s attempts to secure liberty for tender consciences by prerogative action were thwarted; the
Act of Uniformity, introducing a new Book of Common Prayer, restored the ‘Anglican’ Church order
and worship ‘lock, stock and barrel’
1664
• The First Conventicle Act laid penalties on those attending illegal Protestant services other than those
established by law in the Act of Uniformity
1665
• The Five Mile Act banned the clergy who resigned/were ejected in 1662 from living in, or even
visiting, their former parishes
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